Bringing in your best relief pitcher

[Troll Daddy]

26 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Me too TD.  That being said I would like the game or the players to evolve, or more importantly I wish we had enough depth in the bullpen that we could mix and match better.  What we saw in the post season can't really happen over the course of a 162 game season, but it would be nice to see a closer come in and pitch the 8th and 9th of an important game a little more often.  

Interesting word you used 'evolve' ... I think that's were the game is now.

Baseball has been around for over 100 years ... relief pitchers didn't have defined roles. 

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

Me too TD.  That being said I would like the game or the players to evolve, or more importantly I wish we had enough depth in the bullpen that we could mix and match better.  What we saw in the post season can't really happen over the course of a 162 game season, but it would be nice to see a closer come in and pitch the 8th and 9th of an important game a little more often.  

I think it starts in the minors.  Most of these guys are told in advance that they're going to pitch a specific inning and throw a specific number of pitches.  So by the time they get called up they need that same structure.  My friend was a minor league hitting coach for awhile.  The front office of every org sits down with all the minor league coaches at each level and they give them what amounts to a map of how much they want each player to play over the course of the season.  I want this guy to catch 2 out of 3 days.  I want this guy in CF once a week and at 1b once a week.  He's gonna play 5 of every 7 games.  You're gonna pitch 5 innings or x pitches.  There are some adjustments made as the season evolves of course, but it's typically very regimented.